Sunday, August 26, 2007

It is telling in how far away we have come from the idea of a free country, of a federal government of limited and enumerated powers, the rule of law, and the Constitution that in less than 100 years, a federal mandate that would LIMIT something that our citizens could do was deeemed radical enough to require a Constitutional amendment. The 18th amendment effectively made illegal the consumption of alchohol. That experiment in social engineering from central planning lasted all of 13 years. Mercifully, it was repealed by the 21st amendment.

What about today? Where is the amendment for the "War on Drugs"? Did Congress declare war? I must have missed it. One could argue that for the amount of taxpayer money that has been spent on this war, our return on investment has been negligible. Now, I will concede that it is a noble undertaking to protect people from the devestating effects of drug abuse, but at what price? Is it even the place of our federal government to take on such a fight? How much liberty have we exchanged for the promise of security?

Monday, August 20, 2007

Sunday, August 19, 2007

A thought just occured to me that this is an interesting companion to CMStrapz post about Bush and dictatorships.

According to this article, Zimbabwe faces a total collapse within the next few months. Africa is for the most part a craphole anyway. But Zimbabwe, at one time, was on the upswing. It had a strong, growing economy, and was a net exporter of agricultural goods.

That all changed when Robert Mugabe established his dictatorship. He is an avowed Marxist, and he has held power since the 80's, but in recent years he has put into effect a number of programs whose results are all too predictable. A couple of classic examples:

Redistributing private property - he confiscated farms (primarily white-owned and farmers) and gave them to his cronies (generally non farmers). Result: Zimbabwe went from being the "breadbasket of Africa" to a place where people are literally dying in the streets from hunger.

Price controls - mandating pricing of goods and services does not work: "he ordered businesses to cut prices 50 percent and more – supposedly, so people could shop. At least 5,000 resisting business owners and managers were fined and jailed; taxi drivers had vehicles impounded. When stores sold out, producers couldn't afford to import or produce more, so shelves stayed empty. Businesses closed; commerce stopped."

There are other examples that you can look at but the bottom line is this: Mugabe brought this upon himself, his failed Marxist ideology brought this upon himself. He's had 30 years of imposing misery on his people and that's 30 years too many. I hope the next regime learns from his mistakes (unlikely, given the areas history, but I'm an optimist). Oh yeah, if things remain true to form, Mugabe will end up like most dictators. Like this guy, or this guy or this guy. It would be asking way too much if he ended up like this guy.

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I don't think we are close to having a dictatorship in this country, but who knows? The optimist tells me that wouldn't happen here because a) people still believe in the rule of law and b) there are way too many guns out there (thank god for the Second Amendment). But isn't that how things like that happen? Doesn't it sneak up on a country and reveal itself once it's in power?

Being a ridiculously handsome and charming man, I know what it's like to constantly have people calling and texting. You know inviting you out, what's happening, me and my sorority are having a lingerie show, we want you to be the judge. All of that. It's obscene being so popular.

Anyway, I can relate to this chick. This woman got her first i-phone bill recently, it was 300 PAGES and cost ATT 10 dollars to mail to her:

Here's a clip from the local news station that gives some more background:

35,000 text messages a month?!? Even my imaginary friends don't have that much to say. Except, things like stop texting me, and the judge said that you have to stay at least 500 feet away at all times.

Friday, August 10, 2007

According to this article, there has been no evidence of global warming for the last several years because "natural forces" have offset the effects of global warming. This delicate balance will be upset over the next couple of years, as global warming begins "in earnest" in 2009.

Based on my reading of the article, it looks like they used the actual data for the past several years to go back and generate revised forecasts, which now support their contention that 2009 is the magic year where "natural forces" will no longer offset global warming.

It must be nice to never, ever be wrong. I wish that when the data didn't support my conclusions, I could go back and revise my data. No - it's not that global warming is a total fabrication designed to redistribute wealth from the United States to the 3rd world, it's just that "natural forces" have prevented the symptoms from manifesting.

In other news, George Bush has declared that based on the actual data obtained from the war in Iraq, the mission is not technically accomplished as he said in 2003, but it will be in 2009. Just wait and see.*

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

This is the first article (but probably not the last) where China is making overt threats about selling its holdings in US currency:

He Fan, an official at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, went even further today, letting it be known that Beijing had the power to set off a dollar collapse if it choose to do so.

"China has accumulated a large sum of US dollars. Such a big sum, of which a considerable portion is in US treasury bonds, contributes a great deal to maintaining the position of the dollar as a reserve currency. Russia, Switzerland, and several other countries have reduced the their dollar holdings.

"China is unlikely to follow suit as long as the yuan's exchange rate is stable against the dollar. The Chinese central bank will be forced to sell dollars once the yuan appreciated dramatically, which might lead to a mass depreciation of the dollar," he told China Daily.

It's all coming together, at some point on the "event horizon" (I'm guessing September or October) there will be an economic collapse unlike anything we've seen since the Great Depression. Some additional opinion courtesy of Randolphus Maximus (booyah!!).:

The subprime mortgage collapse is not where it stops, you are going to see "prime" borrowers following suit.

There is going to be a massive stock market correction, also in September or October. There might be additional highs reached before then, but like I said in a previous post. Get your shit ready.

"Product recalls" of everything from pet food to toys that use lead based paint are some examples of our "economic sanctions" that we've lobbed towards are largest trading partner. Look for more of that as well as increased scrutiny of other Chinese products.

As well as a continued move away from the dollar as the world's reserve currency. The dollar has continued its freefall against the Euro. We accuse China of currency manipulation but we have done the same thing for the last few years. Since the government stopped publishing official M3 numbers. No one knows exactly what the money supply "officially" is.

What does all of this mean? The party might be over for us, and the bills are coming due. We have reached a point where even China is starting to say we're maxed out. Our reaction is "we don't want your crap anyway". Someone is going to lose out and I'm guessing since we don't hold any cards, it's us. Put your money into gold or bicycles, or put it into international assets (while you still can). The sky is falling. This "is the big one" like Fred Sanford used to say.

All is not lost, yet. Our economy, our people, our entrepreneurial spirit can recover fairly quickly if the government will get the hell out of the way. It's probably not going to happen.

I found this on www.ronpaulforums.com. It's the account of a citizen in New Hampshire with the local police. Here's his account in it's entirety:

Below is a video of my August 5 open carry incident in New Hampshire. It starts audio-only then the video picks up a minute or two later when our pro photographer runs to the scene. Very sorry I wasn't wearing RP shirt at the time.

Basically I'm a liberty activist here; I wear a holstered pistol in public roughly once a week. It's legal in New Hampshire but not that common south of the notches. Cops sometimes ignore, sometimes harass you for doing it. When that happens to me, I don't get angry but use the chance to educate police about the open carry rights of NH citizens.

I was walking 50 yards from my car to the monthly Free Stater meeting at Murphy's Taproom in downtown Manchester. I usually open carry to that meeting.

I was noticed by a state trooper, but I noticed him too and called the Free Staters' emergency hotline before he got to me. In the video you hear my call realtime, as I report my situation and try to explain to our listeners what's happening.

Folks inside the bar also came running out to support me. Police thought it waspre-planned it happened so fast, like they'd been set up or something. But thisis just how our guys react when they're nearby. I appreciate the fact that thepolice were able to maintain calm and respectful demeanor despite some of theanger directed against them by the crowd. But of course look I forward to theday when they don't make such stops in the first place.

Note that I am able to lawfully refuse them when they ask for my "papers" and personal information. If you think this is a better outcome than you'd get where you are now.....move your ass up here and share our freedoms!

Visitwww.FreeStateProject.org

Thanks to all who showed support during andafter this incident.

Hopefully this video will remind people New Hampshire does allow open carry, that officers here do handle themselves better than in most states, and that the Free Staters are continuing to improve level of support which is available to freedom lovers when police take exception to their responsible exercise of rights.

I live in California. It really doesn't work that way out here. Usually, if your holding a stick you get shot.

Monday, August 06, 2007

The latest edition in my continuing quest show what this blog is mostly about, chicks doing yoga, Ron Paul, and puppies. I have such a crush on the girl who does these videos from Ford Models in a totally inappropriate way:

Saturday, August 04, 2007

I have to admit that presidential hopeful Mitt looks pretty good here in an interview on a radio talkshow in Iowa. Eloquent, passionate, and luckily for him it was caught on tape and made its way onto the internet because the part that's gold didn't make it on air:

I do like that the interviewer framed his questions that made it on air around the Constitution (would love to see questions like that on the debate tomorrow).

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

I've said for a long time that the irrational hatred of George W. Bush has caused many otherwise intelligent, educated, well-spoken people to descend into madness and lunacy. Well, this article helps to prove that I'm right. I don't know how sane/rational Harvey Wasserman and Bob Fitrakis were before GWB became the President, but I would be willing to bet that his election was the inciting event that caused them to punch in at the laugh factory.

It simply must be read in its entirety, and the comments are pretty entertaining, too. I know not everyone has the time to read what looks like it should have been written with letters cut out of magazines, so I'll hit some of the high points.

The Bush administration will not hesitate to cancel the 2008 election in the event that Republicans are poised to lose.

The MSM is complicit in these nefarious plans, and will refuse to object when the election is canceled.

Republicans stole over 6% of the vote in Ohio in 2006 (Governor election), and still lost. (Why didn't we just steal more?)

The Supreme Court will rubber-stamp Bush's attempt to remain in power.

The long and short is that Bush will remain in power without an election and no one of consequence will complain. (Tenting fingers, using best Mr. Burns voice) Excellent.

One of my favorite parts of this article is the following: "When George W. Bush went on the record (twice) as saying he has nothing against dictatorship, as long as he can be dictator, it was a clear and present policy statement." Apparently, Bush hatred suppresses the body's natural logic centers. EVERYONE would love a dictatorship where they are the dictator. EVERYONE wants to be in charge and wants EVERYTHING run their way.

Finally, the master plan that is alluded to here would require massive amounts of evil genius in order to implement. Since, according to liberals, Bush is an idiot of the first order, I fail to see how he could have planned something to subvert 220 years of a constitutional republic. I'm no huge Bush lover (I prefer a Brazilian look), but I don't think he wants to be Stalin, either. Again, I can't suggest enough that you read the column and at least some of the comments. It's important to know how devoted the left is to laying the foundation for their eventual 2008 loss.

Hypothetical situation: IF I were famous, and IF I had killed a couple people, and IF I had gotten away with it thanks to a slick defense team and an incompetent prosecution, and IF I had subsequently been found responsible for the deaths in a civil suit, and IF a decade later I was still widely reviled by a large segment of the population... then maybe -- just maybe -- I would think twice about going on live television with a call-in segment. I'm just sayin'.